I have been praising the wonders of the homegrown tomato for a while now, but there is another emblem of summer that has been stopping me in my tracks lately ... the simple sunflower.
Again I have to come clean about my plant snobbery. Once I had my gardener's consciousness raised, I refused to use lots of good plants just because they were common, or 'ugly'. HUH? WHATEVER!!! Like the old saying goes, there's nothing more dangerous than a little knowledge - swaddled in my baby gardener arrogance, I was sure I knew all I needed to know to make sweeping pronouncements about what plants were worthy and which ones were 'icky'.
The sunflower, possibly the most proletariat of all blooming plants, was just too earnest for me. Too easy. Too eager to please.
But this year it is like the proverbial scales have fallen from my eyes. What was I thinking? These giants with halos of summer sun, icky? Please! Why was I exempting these plants from my version of the Golden Rule, that any plant, well combined in appropriate planting associations, can be beautiful? I can imagine these beauties rising up behind the majestic Phormium 'Sundowner', with Aeonium 'Zwartkopf' and Anigoanthus 'Red Cross' bringing the whole thing home. Add in Salvia 'Indigo Spires', and you have yourself a kick-ass late summer combo.
I make you a promise, here and now. No more plant snobbery. Not even for petunias. I'm sure I can find a way to use petunias in a way that will make me love them. It'll be a challenge, but I am up to it. Stay tuned for The Germinatrix Does Petunias Her Way! It might take a while, but I won't give up!!!
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